Solar System Structure
This is the star at the center of our solar system.
What is the Sun?
This is the spinning of Earth on its imaginary axis.
What is rotation?
These are the changing shapes of the Moon's sunlit part that we see from Earth.
What are lunar phases?
This force pulls objects with mass toward one another.
What is gravity?
This technology allows scientists to observe distant objects in space without traveling to them.
What are telescopes
These are the planets in order.
What are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune?
Earth's rotation causes this repeating pattern.
What are day and night?
The Moon appears to change phases because it orbits Earth and we see different amounts of its sunlit half.
What is the Moon's orbit?
The Moon's gravity pulls on Earth's oceans and helps cause these regular changes in ocean-water level.
What are tides?
The inner planets are mostly rocky, while the outer planets are mostly gas giants. What are these two groups of planets called?
What are the terrestrial planets and the gas giants?
This is the movement of an object around another object in space.
What is orbital motion?
Earth's axis is tilted, and Earth revolves around the Sun. Together, these cause this yearly pattern.
What are the seasons?
During this event, the Moon moves between the Sun and Earth and blocks some or all the Sun's light from reaching Earth.
What is a solar eclipse?
These tides occur when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are nearly in a straight line. They have the greatest difference between high tide and low tide.
What are spring tides?
This region of rocky objects lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
What is the asteroid belt?
A model of the solar system is not drawn to actual size because the distances between objects are extremely large. This feature of a model shows how large or far apart objects are compared with one another.
What is scale?
These two events occur when neither hemisphere is tilted more toward the Sun than the other. THey have nearly equal amounts of daylight and darkness.
What are the equinoxes?
During this event, Earth moves between the Sun and Moon, causing Earth’s shadow to fall on the Moon.
What is a lunar eclipse
What are neap tides?
The illuminated part of the Moon appears to be growing during one part of the cycle and shrinking during another.
What are waxing and waning?
A model of the solar system is not drawn to actual size because the distances between objects are extremely large. This feature of a model shows how large or far apart objects are compared with one another.
What is scale?
In the Northern Hemisphere, this event has the most daylight, while this event has the least daylight. Both are caused by Earth’s axial tilt.
What are the summer solstice and the winter solstice?
A student says that a solar eclipse should occur every month when the Moon is between Earth and the Sun. This is not true because the Moon’s orbit is slightly tilted compared with Earth’s orbit around the Sun. What must happen for a solar eclipse to occur?
What is the Moon, Earth, and Sun must be lined up closely enough for the Moon’s shadow to fall on Earth?
The Moon is much smaller than the Sun, but it has a stronger effect on Earth’s tides because it is much closer to Earth. This difference in the strength of gravity across Earth causes this effect.
What is a tidal force?
We add an extra day to the calendar about every four years to account for the fraction of a day in Earth’s revolution around the Sun.
What are leap years?